Jacques Guillemeau

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Jacques Guillemeau

Jacques Guillemeau (born September 1549 in Orléans , † March 13, 1613 in Paris ) was a French surgeon and obstetrician .

Life

Jacques Guillemeau enjoyed a classical education in his youth, which he later benefited greatly when he took up the study of surgery , because it enabled him to study the works of Hippocrates , Celsus and Galenus towards others and thereby to increase his medical knowledge expand. He was a student of Riolan , Courtin and Ambroise Parés . The latter was particularly dear to him and his medical training was very important to him. He also took him with him a few times as an assistant when he went to war as a military doctor .

On the orders of Henry III. Guillemeau went to the Count of Mansfeld and stayed for four years as a surgeon in the Spanish army in Flanders . After his return to Paris in 1581 he practiced his surgical art in the Hôtel-Dieu . He was court physician and personal physician to the French kings Charles IX. , Heinrich III. and Henry IV. He died a highly respected surgeon on March 13, 1613 at the age of 63 in Paris.

Guillemeau worked as an ophthalmologist , surgeon and obstetrician. His literary achievements as an ophthalmologist are poor. As a surgeon, on the other hand, he achieved excellent results. Above all, it is thanks to him that the teachings of Paré found general dissemination, because he published his works. As a surgeon, he paid particular attention to gunshot wounds, trepanation, and aneurysms . For example, he recommends widening the gunshot wound immediately and removing the foreign body without delay. He limits himself to the primary amputations , while he prefers the hot iron for gangrene . We owe him an improvement on the trephine, the toothed crown. He declares the use of the trephine superfluous as soon as the hard meninges are present and the pus can drain properly. He treats the blood vessels with caustic agents, in particular with soapy water. He was the first to tie the aneurysmal vascular tube below and above its pathological dilatation and then to extirpate the entire aneurysmal sac.

While Guillemeau deserves the fame of an important surgeon of his time, this is even more true of the obstetrician Guillemeau. In his Surgery, published in 1594, he devoted a separate chapter to obstetric surgery theory. In 1609 he wrote a special work devoted to obstetrics, which is indisputably one of the best of its time. Not only did he fully enjoy the teachings of Paré, his teacher, but he also perfected them. He was a great friend of the turn of the fetus, which he zealously promoted. He describes the signs of pregnancy very thoroughly and in detail, as does molar pregnancy. In threatening conditions intra partum, he recommends turning on both feet with immediate extraction, as in the case of blood flow and convulsions . The anatomical conditions of the placenta previa are still unknown to him, but nevertheless he generally gives a correct therapy in relation to it. He recommends a caesarean section for the dead, but rejects this operation for the living, following the views of his master Paré.

His works are as follows:

  • Tables anatomique, avec les pourtraits et declaration d'icelles , Paris 1571; new edition 1586 (this work was dedicated to King Heinrich III.)
  • Traité des maladies de l'œil , Paris 1585; Lyon 1610 (translated into Flemish and German)
  • Apologie pour les chirurgiens , Paris 1593
  • La chirurgie française, recueillie des anciens médecins et chirurgiens, avec plusieurs figures des instruments nécessaires pour l'opération de la main , Paris 1594 (English translation, London 1612)
  • L'heureux accouchement des femmes , Paris 1609 and 1621
  • De la nourriture et gouvernement des enfants , 1609

Several works by Guillemeau were also published under the title Œuvres de chirurgie (Paris 1598-1612; Rouen 1649). Guillemeau's son Charles Guillemeau , also a surgeon, edited some of his works and later editions .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Guillemeau's birth and death dates according to the article on his person on data.bnf.fr
  2. ↑ a b c d e Guillemeau, Charles , in: Biographical Lexicon of Outstanding Doctors of All Times and Nations , Vol. 2 (1885), p. 696.
  3. ^ Friedrich Wilhelm Theile: Guillemeau (Charles) , in: Allgemeine Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste , 1st section, 96th part (1877), p. 316.
personal data
SURNAME Guillemeau, Jacques
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Guillemeau, Jacobus; Guilelmeau, Jacobus; Guillimeau, James
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French surgeon and obstetrician
DATE OF BIRTH September 1549
PLACE OF BIRTH Orleans
DATE OF DEATH March 13, 1613
Place of death Paris